The Miami Dolphins have many holes on both sides of the ball. They have several one-year contracts that will create more holes. They have 26 unrestricted free agents to make decisions on but don't have much salary cap space.
Miami will find itself in a bad situation heading into February and March as it begins to manipulate its roster cap situation. While the team will need to replace departing free agents, they will also need to trim their roster, which will not be as easy as it sounds.
According to Over The Cap, the Dolphins will hit the offseason needing to clear around $2.63 million to get back to even. That means Chris Grier must trim the roster, and these players should be the first ones to go with the hopes the annual cap increase will help create more room.
Dolphins can create significant cap space by making roster cuts
There are other methods to create cap space, including restructures and even extensions, but the Dolphins can start saving money by releasing these players:
Player | 2025 cap | Dead Money | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
Durham Smythe | $4.83 million | $2.66 million | $2.18 million |
Jason Sanders | $4.73 million | $1.39 million | $3.34 million |
Raheem Mostert | $4.07 million | $1 million | $3.07 million |
Jake Bailey | $2.53 million | $550,000 | $1.98 million |
Channing Tindall | $1.61 million | $212,225 | $1.39 million |
Blake Ferguson | $1.17 million | $0 | $1.17 million |
Tanner Conner | $1.1 million | $0 | $1.1 million |
Erik Ezukanma | $1.1 million | $0 | $1.1 million |
Julian Hill | $1.03 million | $4,168 | $1.03 million |
Total | $22.17 million | $5.82 million | $16.36 million |
The Dolphins will probably not want to release Sanders, and they shouldn't. He should, however, restructure his contract to free up cap space. They have done this before. This is where the Dolphins get into cap trouble. Restructuring deals save money in the current season but pushes the bill into future years. Grier has to avoid doing a lot of restructures this season, especially with players who are not in the long-term future of the team, like Tyreek Hill and Jalen Ramsey.
The problem the Dolphins have is they will almost have to push money around. Terron Armstead is not on the list above. He is not a candidate for a pre-June 1 release. He is, however, a candidate for post-June 1 move.
This will push dead money into next season ($7.8 million, to be exact), but Miami would get $15 million in cap relief on June 2. The Dolphins could explore doing the same with Bradley Chubb, who would count $9.1 million toward the dead money pool but give the Dolphins another $20 million in space after June 1.
It is not ideal for the Dolphins, and as these numbers show, they have managed to back themselves into a corner. Grier will almost certainly need to add more one-year contracts at or near league minimum to fill depth holes. He will not have a lot of money to spend on starting quality players that are needed.
Grier said in his post-season press conference that the Dolphins need to address the offensive line, and they also need a better backup quarterback, but the salary cap situation could be prohibitive without making major sweeping changes.
The roster situation was supposed to secure the team through the 2025 season. Contracts were designed to keep core players through the upcoming year, and most of the "outs" in those deals begin to get better ahead of 2026, but they didn't plan for injuries or other depth issues.
For example, Miami expected Liam Eichenberg to improve and solve one of the two guard positions, but that didn't happen. Miami will also have two holes at safety, as it is unlikely to retain Jevon Holland and Jordan Poyer.
Grier and Mike McDaniel have a lot of work to do before March arrives, and if they can't get the roster fixed this year, it might be too late to save their jobs.